# Middle Names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 1999, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226 "1999-10-25T13:24:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mullinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/1 "1999-10-25T13:24:00Z")
## I couldn’t find anything on this using the search engines (those bastions of infallibility). Anyway, I was wondering just why we have middle names. I would think it is around partially as another way to identify John Robert Smith from John Hubert Smith, but what other reasons are out there? All generalizations suck. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/2 "1999-10-25T13:50:00Z")
Now that the Britannica is free, go to [http://www.eb.com/](http://www.eb.com/) , do a lookup on “name”. There is an article that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know (without telling you exactly what you are asking for, of course). Check out the section on _onomastics_ within the _name_ article. Actually, just read the whole article, then click on the article’s index to find other locations to try within the EB. * * * Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![Keeves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f05b48/32.png) [@Keeves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeves)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/3 "1999-10-25T13:52:00Z")
Another reason is when there are two different people who you want to honor, so instead of choosing between then, you name the baby after both of them. A recent precedent-setting case which demonstrates my point, would be Pope John Paul I, who was the first pope to use two names, and deliberately did so in order to honor his two immediate predecessors. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/4 "1999-10-25T13:53:00Z")
Middle names are chosen so convicted murderers can be differentiated from normal people. Like Chuck Brian Manson! * * * The poster beneath me is really smart! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/5 "1999-10-25T14:02:00Z")
Actually,I was stiffed on a middle name. Guess my mums drugs wore off too late after my birth! ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/6 "1999-10-25T14:42:00Z")
Middle names are to embarrass high school seniors at graduation. Fortunately for me, William is not that funny of a name. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/7 "1999-10-25T14:46:00Z")
Middle names are what you can’t have too many of… – C. K. Dexter Haven ---
**Author:** ![Mullinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 1999, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/8 "1999-10-25T14:55:00Z")
Thanks for the link TomnDebb, most enlightening. Didn’t realize that was available. ---
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 1999, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/9 "1999-10-26T02:10:00Z")
I always thought middle names were for our mothers to say along with our first and last names to let us know that they were SERIOUSLY pissed off. (i.e. “John Jacob Smith, you get in this house this instant!”) ---
**Author:** ![Mazey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@Mazey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mazey)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 1999, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/10 "1999-10-26T12:26:00Z")
My sister and I went to our parents when we were young, asking why we didn’t have middle names. My parents wanted to know why we were asking, and we explained our little friends were teasing us because they all had middle names and we didn’t. My parents then asked if any of our friends actually liked their middle names, and we said everyone hated theirs. My parents then wisely informed us THAT was why they didn’t give us middle names. * * * What if the hokey pokey is really what it’s all about? ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 1999, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/11 "1999-10-26T13:59:00Z")
My middle name is Jill. I just don’t have a first name. ---
**Author:** ![Keeves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f05b48/32.png) [@Keeves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeves)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 1999, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/12 "1999-10-27T05:37:00Z")
Here are two questions which are probably related: (1) What the origin of the phrase “XYZ is his middle name”, spoken about someone who expert in XYZ? (2) Why does an RC Cardinal put that title _after_ his first name? Why is it “John Cardinal O’Connor”, and not “Cardinal John O’Connor”? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 1999, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/13 "1999-10-26T19:08:00Z")
On Keeves’ second question, since Arken stole the bon mot I’d planned on posting, there is a comma that should be there and is customarily omitted. When Queen Victoria made the poet Alfred Tennyson a baron, his signature and byname to every literate English-speaker became Alfred, Lord Tennyson. When the Pope made Bishop John O’Connor a Cardinal of the Church, he became John, Cardinal O’Connor, usually written without the comma. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2000, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/14 "2000-05-12T08:03:11Z")
[Middle Names](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=7491) Peace. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2000, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/middle-names/4226/15 "2000-05-12T08:25:02Z")
I believe you can have as many given names as you want, in which case all except the first would be “middle” names. In Spain we do not have the concept of “middle name” although you can have more than one given names and then you would just say you have a compound name, like Jose Luis. Given the Spanish naming scheme there is no confusion between members of the same family even if they have the same given name as their parents because even though we have only one given name, we have two family names, from father and mother, so there is no confusion. (Women have never changed their name upon getting married, that custom seems very odd to us). This confuses Americans who think our first family name is our middle name and would call us by our second family name.